Developing and Implementing an Escape Plan for Your Employees

When owning your own company, there are many responsibilities to oversee, including the safety and well-being of your employees. Developing and implementing a fire escape plan for your workers could potentially save their lives, so there’s no reason you shouldn’t get one in place if you don’t have one established already. Are you starting from scratch but not sure where to begin? Here is a simple list of steps to follow to create your own fire escape plan for your employees!

Determine the conditions under which an evacuation of your building would be necessary. In addition to fire, you might also consider running escape plans for explosions, workplace violence, and natural disasters that might be prone to your area, such as tornadoes or hurricanes.

Establish a chain of command among your employees, to make the process go smoothly in the event of an actual emergency.

Designate evacuation routes and exits. Create a map using the floor diagram of your office or business that clearly designates the exit routes and post it throughout the building, including by the exits, meeting areas and near strategic equipment, such as fire alarms, fire extinguishers, first aid kits, eye wash stations, etc. Be sure the exits are clearly marked and well lit!

Establish procedures for dealing with handicapped employees, visitors to your workplace, outside merchants, etc. to ensure not only your employees are clear on a safe escape plan in the event of a fire or other natural disaster, but so that they are able to help others in an efficient manner so that everyone has a chance to make it out of the situation unharmed.

Be sure to include special training for employees to use certain equipment and also determine a way to make sure that everyone is accounted for after the evacuation.

Implement the above procedures by performing regular drills to ensure that everyone employed at your company has had at least one run-through practice to better their chances of surviving a disaster should one unfortunately strike your area or business.

In addition to implementing an escape plan in the event of a fire or other disaster, keep your employees safe with a routine inspection of your fire protection equipment and be sure to update or replace your fire extinguishers and sprinkler system should a defect occur. Call Fire and Life Safety America for all or your fire safety needs and concerns!